The Broken
by Carpe Tempore
Summary: Everyone gets hurt, yet few ever achieve the power to avenge the feelings or those lost. Alternate-team 7, character death, strong!team7
1. Prologue: Team 7

It was early in the morning; the sun had barely risen above the horizon. It could be called the perfect quiet morning, but because of a pesky little alarm it got utterly ruined for one Uzumaki Naruto. As Naruto cranked open one eye, he took a deep breath before slamming his fist on the alarm clock, reducing it to little bits and pieces. As he sat up, trying to figure out why this particular day was so important, his eyes suddenly widened. It was graduation day.

"Goodbye daddy, I'll be back after the ceremony." As Haruno Sakura closed the front door of her house; she gave a quick parting to her father. With a slight smile on her face, she went towards the academy. It might not be the fastest or the shortest route towards the academy, but the chances of meeting her crush on the road to the academy were way higher this way. Uchiha Sasuke was her dearly beloved class mate, the rookie of the year and the best ninja to ever start the academy, and also the best looking guy if you were to believe Sakura or most of the girls of her graduation class. He was the one she wished she could spend the rest of her life with_. "Two children: a son and a daughter. That would be perfect, but I do hope he's going to notice me more. I've even grown my hair out!" _Sakura mused. She turned around a corner and saw a familiar blonde walking on the side of the road. "Hey, pig!" Sakura shouted. "What are you doing here? Isn't your house on the other side of Konoha?" The blonde in question turned to look at her. "If it isn't forehead girl, what do you think I'm doing? It should be obvious; I'm going to walk together with Sasuke-kun." That agitated Sakura to no end. "Ino, do you seriously think I'm going to let you be alone with him? No way. We'll walk together." Sakura walked towards Ino, and together they went to search for Sasuke.

Uchiha Sasuke was taking a leisurely stroll towards the academy, he thought it was a good day to get out of bed early, get some training in and take off towards the academy. Today would be the real start of his path to vengeance. As he walked around a corner, he suddenly saw a flash of pink and blonde. "Sasuke-kun!" The shriek horrified him to no end, his panicking mind could only think of one thing. _Run_. And running is exactly what he did.

Naruto strapped his kunai holster to his thigh, before heading out of his apartment, taking care not to disturb the neighbors while shutting his door. "Come on, don't get stuck again, you damn door." Naruto mumbled. Before turning around and walking down the stairs. Naruto wondered what the day would bring, he expected not all that much though, considering how the last couple of years went by. Somehow he was a bit excited though, hoping for the better. He heard a faint screech, followed by hurried footsteps. Naruto shrugged, thinking his mind was playing tricks on him. Little did he know someone was running for his life not all that far from him.

* * *

**_Some Time Later_**

Sasuke was sitting at his seat, he felt really insecure. He wouldn't tell anyone of course, but the two girls sitting on either side of him were somewhat disturbing. "Sasuke-kun is mine!" Sakura, the pink haired one from earlier, shouted. To which the blonde haired Ino responded with a snort. "You bet, forehead girl! Sasuke belongs to me, I'm the one who always makes his lunch!" "The lunch he never accepts you mean, right?" Sakura snapped back.

As Sasuke tuned out their bickering, he thought about his potential team, who his Jounin-sensei would be and most of all about his brother, the one he swore to kill in name of his clan. Of course he knew it would take years of training before he could even stand in his shadow, but he knew that his patience would be rewarded.

As Sasuke was brooding about his brother, Iruka-sensei finally entered the classroom. "_It's about time"_ Sasuke thought the entrance of his teacher was long overdue. He wanted to get assigned to a team and get over it, so he could learn jutsu to kill his brother.

"Attention class!" Iruka shouted, seeing as his class was quite rowdy. "Today is the day you finally graduate, just so you know; I'm proud of all of you. These past few years have been a pleasure, and I'm sure all of you will make fine shinobi. But I guess none of you is actually interested in my rambling and want to know to which team you are assigned. Let's start with team 1."

"Team 7 consists of: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata." At that point Kiba fell out of his chair catching Sasuke somewhat off guard, making him miss the name of his sensei to be. "What the hell sensei, I wanted to be on Hinata's team!" Kiba ranted. "I had little to do with the team selection, except noting the higher ups on your personal strengths, weaknesses and personalities, Kiba." The Chuunin countered. Sasuke tuned out his sensei as he contemplated his new team members. _"Sakura's a fangirl, as useless as they can get, she might be able to keep some bandits busy. As long as she doesn't get in my way I'm fine with her. Hinata though…. She used to be hardly noticeable, but somehow she managed to become one of the top Kunoichi of the year. She might actually be useful. I wonder who my sensei will be, though I suppose he must be strong to be a Jounin sens-."_He was snapped out of his musings by the door opening. A brown haired man wearing the standard issued Jounin vest walked in, taking in the class as he did so. "Team 4, you're with me. Get to training ground five within five minutes or you'll be back here before you can say 'Hokage'. Move it!" Sasuke watched on in surprise as two girls and one boy suddenly started trying to climb over their desk in their hurry to be on time, the Jounin looking on with a sadistic smirk on his face.

* * *

**_Thirty Minutes Later_**

Sasuke looked up **again** as the door opened, this time to allow entrance to a stunning black haired woman with red eyes that almost seemed to be glowing. "Would team 8 join me on the roof please, we'll talk more there." Her voice, though she spoke softly, carried through the room without any trouble, before she disappeared in a whirl of leaves. Sasuke noticed that she seemed more like a Jounin than the other did up till now. Kiba immediately jumped up. "Jackpot! I have the hottest sensei ever!" He shouted excitedly, before he ran out of the room. His puppy Akamaru, following him while wagging his tail. "Why did I have to be with the pervert?" A girl, Ami if he remembered correctly, near the front of the class said before letting out an audible sigh, while standing up and following the Inuzuka. Not noticing any further movement Sasuke looked to the back of the classroom looking for the third member of team 8; quickly noticing that Aburame Shino had quietly slipped out without anyone noticing.

Sasuke turned back around, turning his head to the front of the class, before stopping as he caught something blonde near the door. He looked at the blonde hair for a moment. _"Why is his face upside down?"_ The thought came slow to Sasuke as he took in the teenager wearing civilian styled clothing, standing upside down on the ceiling of his classroom. A black short-sleeved shirt marked with an orange spiral symbol on the chest, identically colored pants which ended near his ankles, showing off his shinobi sandals. A kunai holster was strapped to his left thigh, as well as a hitai-ate to his left bicep. The blonde smiled at him, but it wasn't a 'nice' smile. It was a feral smile that sent shivers down his spine just at the mere sight of it. It was a smile that said; 'you're doomed, and there's nothing you can do about it.' "Hello, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. Team 7; meet me at training ground three in an hour. Prepare for a survival exercise, make sure to say goodbye to your family."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. This story is a little experiment between two writers. It's entirely co-written. If people enjoy it, and we personally are content with the quality we deliver, we hope to go all the way with this story. Feedback is always appreciated.**

**With best regards,**

**Carpe Tempore**


	2. What it means to be a Shinobi

Hinata stood in front of her father, Hyuuga Hiashi. She was a bit nervous, but that was to be expected. She used to be bad at dealing with him, but she just didn't really care about him, nor the way he felt about her, anymore. Old habits were hard to let go though. "Yes father, I'll do my utmost best. You won't need to be worried about me." '_You wouldn't anyway' _Hinata's harsh thoughts didn't reflect the words that left her mouth. She knew it wasn't really fair to think about her father like that, but she couldn't help it. Her father used to detest her for being weak after her mother died. She tried her hardest to become the person her father wanted her to be, but it was to no avail. She became stronger, learned to use her Kekkei Genkai correctly and became proficient in the clan Taijutsu. Her father gave all his attention to her little sister, and Hinata envied her for it.

"You are dismissed Hinata, do not disappoint me." _'I should have known, disappointment before worry.´_ Hiashi beckoned her to leave his office. She quickly went to the Hyuuga supply and armory room, picked up a standard survival kit, and went towards training ground three. As Hinata was walking to the exit of the clan compound she wondered about her new team and sensei. Her sensei seemed a bit young and peculiar to her, he couldn't be much older than her, maybe a few years. What seemed a bit strange to her, was the way Sasuke reacted to their sensei. She sensed fear and something what might have been a form of remembrance. She never would have expected Sasuke to know fear, but she was clueless as to what he was scared of.

It only took her a few minutes to reach training ground three, and looking at the sun, she determined she had at least ten minutes left. As she entered the training grounds she quickly spotted Sasuke sitting near to a peculiar looking black stone, Sakura was next to him. 'P_estering him for a date, obviously' _She thought with a sigh, before moving over to join them. "Hey Sasuke, Sakura, let's do our best, alright?" She said softly, though happy that she had finally gotten rid of her stuttering. "Sure! Besides, what could go wrong with Sasuke-kun on our team? He'll kick that freak ninja's ass!" Sakura responded happily. "What do you mean, freak ninja?" Hinata asked confused, she hadn't seen anything that seemed too strange about him. "Hinata! Don't tell me you didn't notice? He was standing on the ceiling, that isn't normal! And just think about his clothes, what kind of ninja dresses like that?" Sakura responded, almost looking surprised by the question. Hinata just responded by lifting an eyebrow, the veins around her eyes bulging out slightly, before turning around and walking to a tree, standing still beneath it she looked up. "I don't know, Sensei, why do you dress like that?" She asked with a slight smile.

Naruto admitted that he had to give it to the little Hyuuga, it was impressive that she had managed to sense him. He wasn't suppressing his chakra a lot but it still should have been impossible for a Genin fresh out of the academy. The fact that she had then used her Byakugan to find his exact position didn't matter in the least, she was born with the talent and would be a fool not to use it. Which is why he smiled down at his little student. "One of a ninja's greatest weapons is deception, little Hyuuga. I can already see both pinky and the Uchiha are underestimating me because of the way I dress. Does that answer your question?" As he said this, Naruto couldn't help but feel a small smile slip onto his face. She was curious, it would help her learn... if she passed his test. At that moment nine faces flashed before his mind's eye. Three different teams he had failed before this one. All while training to kill the traitor. Those that came before had all worn smiles just like the Hyuuga, curious and happy, hopeful even. They didn't understand that they weren't yet Shinobi, or what it took to be one.

He had what was probably the most complicated of tests among the Jounin-sensei prospects. Unlike for example Kurenai, who only had her prospective team chasing her around a training ground. Or perhaps Daisuke who expected a group of twelve year olds to act like veteran Jounin and put the mission before themselves, the prospective team two wasn't likely to pass this year. No, his was a test of physical as well as mental strength. First he would explain to them what a Shinobi truly was, training ground three was perfect for this because of the First Memorial Stone. It carried the names of the dead, those who had fallen in the name of Konoha and the Will of Fire.

Depending on their reactions he would either pass them for the first stage, or fail them on the spot. They were still children and needed to understand. He couldn't allow them to go into the field with the wrong mindset, and refused to be responsible for their fate.

Naruto let himself drop from his rather comfortable spot on the tree branch after the girl nodded in response to his earlier question. After he landed, his gaze swept over his students, who had lined up before him. Pinky looked somewhat meek and even slightly intimidated, most likely because of the insult she had unknowingly let him hear, the Uchiha seemed intrigued and somewhat hesitant and finally the little Hyuuga still looked hopeful and curious.

"Please take a seat on this oh so comfortable grass," Naruto began "and tell me a little something about yourselves. Likes, dislikes, dreams, plans for the future, the usual stuff you'll get on a personality test." The Genin quickly sat down, with Sakura starting to open her mouth. "Shush, did I give you permission to talk, girl?" Naruto interrupted her. "We'll start with the Hyuuga."

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata, I'm twelve years old, and I'm the heir to the Hyuuga household. I like pressing flowers and training in the clan arts with my cousin Neji. I dislike the way the main branch of the clan rules over the outer branch, arrogance as well as needless cruelty. My plan for the future is to take over leadership of my clan. My dreams are to unite the outer and the main family and get the acknowledgement of my father." Hinata looked at the grass. "Is that okay, Sensei?" She concluded, suddenly a bit shy.

"Yes that's alright, Hinata." Naruto said with a slight smile "Pinky, you're up." He commanded. "But sensei, shouldn't you go first to show us how it's done?" She questioned. "Well, I would assume that Hinata doing it correctly would have been enough for you, but I suppose I'll indulge you." Naruto responded. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm seventeen years old, I am a well-known Jounin with a kill on sight order in multiple small countries and even a Shinobi village or two. My likes are training and completing A-rank missions. My dislikes are traitors and those who can't be trusted. As well as the three minutes it takes to cook cup ramen. My plans for the future are to kill my former teammate who betrayed the village, as well as to get recognized as an S-rank Shinobi. I suppose, if I had a dream, it would be to become Hokage." He finished.

Sasuke looked shocked, his mouth slightly open as his mind obviously processed the information he had just gotten. Then he opened his mouth. "I knew you looked familiar! I remember you fro-" He was about to continue speaking before Naruto interrupted him. "Let's not talk about such things here Sasuke, depending on the outcome of today you'll get your answers soon enough. Now, Pinky, is that enough of an example for you?" He finished with a slight smirk aimed at his pink haired Genin prospect. "Yes, Sensei. My name is Haruno Sakura, I like making my father proud and I also like…" She looked at Sasuke with a blush "I want to become strong, really strong. And… Well… " Her blush intensified and she started to giggle a little. "I don't really have any dislikes, except for people harassing those who are weaker than them." She said with conviction. "Alright, what about you, Uchiha?" Naruto continued the introductions. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like little and hate a lot. I do not have a dream, only an ambition. I will kill my brother who slaughtered my clan." Sasuke said with a burning hatred in his eyes at the thought of his brother. "Alright, though I'd have liked a bit more detail from some of you, I suppose it'll have to do. Follow me." Naruto said while standing up, before starting to walk across the training field.

Naruto was concerned, contemplating what he had learned as he led the Genin across the training grounds. _'Out of these three only Hinata is both physically and mentally ready. Sasuke is obviously strong, I can see it in every movement he makes, but is he ready for the true duty of a Shinobi? Sakura seems to be a wildcard, she's smitten with Sasuke, but the academy rated her very highly on the theoretical side of things. She needs to grow up though, and do it fast. Emotions, and especially those of the romantic kind, are absolutely fatal on the battlefield.' _He looked up to see he had reached his destination before suddenly stopping. Ignoring the commotion behind him as Sakura avoided bumping into him by the smallest of margins, he looked at his goal. A slab of black marble nearly three feet high, and two feet wide. He sighed softly as he looked over the names engraved in the stone before he spoke. "This stone holds the names of the greatest heroes of our village, our greatest Shinobi. Gaze upon it, as you would gaze upon them. The honor of having your name placed on a stone like this is indescribable, yet should never be something to aim for."

"Why not Sensei?" Sakura's voice cut through his monologue before he could even really begin. He did not mind though, it allowed him to make his point even more clear. "Because, Sakura, these are the Shinobi that made the ultimate sacrifice for the mission and their village. These are the Shinobi and Kunoichi that died in the line of duty." Sakura clearly hadn't expected to hear this, as did her teammates, as 3 pairs of eyes looked at the stone as if seeing it in a new light. The hundreds of names having a new meaning to the young minds reading them. Naruto gave them a few seconds to take it in before carrying on. "Eight hundred names are written on this stone. Even so, it is one of many. Over a dozen of these stones are spread throughout Konohagakure, honoring the sacrifice and dedication of the fallen. Those who put the village before themselves. In the end, all of our names shall be on a memorial stone. Our missions will fade, our acts forgotten. But our name shall remain, and through it, new generations of Shinobi will know that before them came others. Others who made it possible for them to stand there, names perhaps not remembered each evening in the pub, but names of people that gave everything they had to give." As Naruto spoke, he looked into the eyes of his prospective Genin. He looked deep inside of them, searching for their feelings. This was his first test, and the trio before him wasn't even realizing they were passing it. In each of their eyes the same things could be seen, sorrow for the fallen, but just as he had hoped, there was something else. Determination. They felt it with such intensity it almost made their eyes glow. Even Sakura, who he had judged to be a failure just a few minutes earlier, looked like she understood what her fate would be. Just like her teammates, she embraced it. They had passed their first test.

"Our village is special, while other village preach the strength of the individual we preach teamwork. The reason for this is simple, even the strongest of men or women can be defeated by another with more and better capabilities. When a Konoha Squad is properly trained we are that stronger Shinobi. Together we outmatch any single Shinobi. As a village we talk about the Will of Fire, this is our belief in our comrades, but also in the greater whole that is Konohagakure. As we are the leaves, Konoha is the tree. As such, we fight for the tree, so it may grow and prosper."

"A friend of mine tends to say; "Those who abandon the mission are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. I believe in this, as together we can do more. However, even as those words guide you along your path you must always keep an eye on the tree. Is the mission of importance for the tree? If you fail your mission, what happens to you and your team then? As an example I had a mission a few years ago, where I had to choose between a friend and plunging our village into a war against two hidden villages. As you know your history, you know what I was forced to choose." He shrugged as he glanced at the Hyuuga. "I expect of you, when the time comes, to make the same choice as I did."

"Judging by your facial expression, you seem to have realized that being a Shinobi isn't like living in a fairy tale. It's brutal and often terrifying. But don't let that ruin your day, since you still need to complete some tests." He grinned after saying that, "Well now, follow me my cute little students, on to training ground thirteen." Naruto quickly jumped into the tree where he had been sitting before, before launching off onto the next one, and onto a roof after that.

Sakura still sat on the grass, her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide in surprise. Her sensei had ended his monologue so suddenly and then moved so fast that her mind was still playing catch-up. She was startled as a hand was almost shoved into her face, clearly offering to pull her up. She looked up to see Hinata's compassionate face looking down on her. "Let's go, we'll have to move quickly if we want to catch up to him." In response she just grabbed the Hyuuga's hand and pulled herself up before following Sasuke, who was already moving across the field at a rapid pace.

He was running as fast as he could, but he already came to the conclusion that it was impossible to keep up with the older teenager he was trying to catch up to. He could clearly see the difference between a Jounin and a Genin, and to be frankly, it was very demotivating. By the time Sasuke left training ground three, he already lost sight and sound of his Sensei. '_Damn it, I need to be faster! How did he even traverse through the trees that easily?'_ Sasuke was rather impressed by the sheer difference in mobility between him and the Uzumaki. Nevertheless he renewed his utmost efforts and took a shortcut which not many people knew of. It would let him bypass the marketplace; he knew it would make sure he arrived before the luggage known as his teammates would. Hopefully his Sensei would praise him, and perhaps make him see that the fangirl wasn't fit to be a Shinobi. That way he could either get some personal training or at the least a replacement for Haruno.

* * *

Naruto felt annoyed and slightly disappointed. Even after all he had heard, Uchiha Sasuke had still decided to leave his teammates to fend for themselves in the chase scenario Naruto had given them. Currently he was already at the training ground, overseeing the next little test for his precious wannabe Genin. Looking at the test he couldn't help but smile. If they passed this one, they'd have completed two out of three tests. It would mean the team as a whole would pass. Already, he could feel how close they were to being his first team, and he couldn't help but be excited about it. He had a feeling this team could work well, if only he could figure out a way to test the young avenger's personality and thirst for vengeance and help the Haruno with her problems.

A few minutes passed before he heard hurried footsteps, soon followed by heavy panting. Sasuke was the first to arrive at the training ground, moving to his sensei the moment he spotted the blonde haired teenager. "Isn't it beautiful, Sasuke?" It took the tired Uchiha a few seconds to process his sensei's words, and then some more to realize he was actually supposed to look at something. Slowly his exhausted eyes scanned the training ground, scanning the area as he had been taught by both his clan and the academy. Brushes to his left, a tree next to them with his sensei leaning against it. Fields spread out for over four hundred meters to his right, a big structure sitting on it, water behind that signifying the end of the training grounds.

It felt obvious to Sasuke that he was supposed to take a look a closer look at the huge structure covering most of the training ground. The general structure consisted of multiple platforms connected by various objects, such as ropes. This would be pretty normal, it was obvious that it was meant to be an obstacle course. "Sensei, why..?" Sasuke started to ask for an explanation. "Not yet Sasuke, let's wait on your teammates before we run off and proceed with the mission." Sasuke felt slightly cornered; as running off and proceeding with the mission was what he had just done when he had decided to chase after his sensei alone. "But I can't expect them to keep up with me." Sasuke complained, to which his Sensei frowned. "That's where you're wrong Sasuke, remember what I told about the tree?" It took Sasuke a slight moment, but then it dawned. He had just left his teammates behind, which could have killed all of them if it were a dangerous mission. "Sorry sensei. I should have slowed down and helped them." Sasuke apologized.

Sakura could barely feel her legs anymore. When Hinata had helped her up she had thought that she had at least one teammate that'd be nice to her, but when the young Hyuuga started pushing her to run faster and faster so they could get to the training ground as soon as possible she had quickly changed her mind. Then, when their chosen path through the market district was blocked by a mob of housewives shopping around they had to backtrack almost half the route until they had ended up at the Hyuuga compound before heading in another direction again. Then when they had almost run into the fence of training ground forty-four they realized they didn't even know where training ground thirteen was. After being pulled to the other side of the village to check where the training ground was on the maps in the Hokage Tower they found out it was a comfortable forty second walk from training ground forty-four. Where they had just come from. Sakura was unhappy, tired, in great pain and on auto-pilot. This all contributed to the fact that when Hinata stopped walking once they reached their sensei and Sasuke-kun, Sakura never noticed. In fact, she had never noticed them entering the training ground. She just kept walking to the best of her ability. She however did notice when she walked into something warm yet unyielding, slowly turning her head upwards until they met the ocean-blue of her sensei.

Hinata was very proud of Sakura, the green-eyed girl had pushed towards and beyond her limits in their running around the village and that dedication impressed the young girl. It reminded her about herself when she was younger, weaker, yet she had changed. She was sure that with her current drive, her teammate would be able to do the same. When Sakura walked right into their Sensei, Hinata had giggled a bit, it looked positively funny after all. What happened right afterwards though, she could never have predicted.

As soon as Sakura bumped into her Sensei, and looked up; she felt terror. Her heart was racing, her mind hardly coherent. She took the only logical solution she could think of in that moment. She tried to get away as fast as possible, but as she turned away from the man, he grasped her by her arm. Instincts kicked in; she quickly grabbed a kunai out of her holster and aimed for a stab at his chest. The man, for some reason, caught the kunai with his bare hands. They usually didn't do that, most of the time they would let go and be scared away. If not, they would receive a wound somewhere, and let go out of pain. "Sakura, please calm down!" Why was it that this man wouldn't let go after getting wounded? "It's okay Sakura, no need to try and stab me to death." Her arm got released, but why was the voice so familiar? "Sakura, it's okay. No need to be scared." As the fear subsided, she realized that she was crying in Hinata's arms.

While she had Sakura breaking down in her arms, she gave her Sensei a questioning look. Naruto looked conflicted for a moment, before seeming to come to a resolution. He gave her a reassuring nod; mouthing it would be fine, before speaking up. "Alright guys, let's get back on track. Uchiha, get your ass over to the obstacle course!" The purpose of this obstacle course is to test your physical aptitude. I'll judge you based on the time it took to complete the course. If you complete this task I set before you; I will obviously be pleased. If you fail, don't worry. You might still have the tiniest of chances passing my graduation test. But you will have to do your utmost best, and perform better than your average Genin. Don't let this discourage you though; I only failed all my Genin teams up till now." While he spoke; Hinata could feel Sakura calming down. As she focused more on what her Sensei was saying and the task at hand. Hinata on the other hand; started wondering if her Sensei was a sadist.

* * *

Sasuke stood in front of the course. "Now remember Sasuke, this course is far different from the standard stuff you might have passed during the academy. This is a course made for real Shinobi." Naruto advised him, while lazily sitting on a tree branch. "Easy for you to say; sitting on your safe perch over there!" Sasuke surprised himself with the outburst, what was it about his Sensei that brought out this side of him? Disregarding the increasing mystery of his sensei's personality and identity he prepared himself to run towards the start of the course, a net that was spanned between two wooden poles, each about 3 meters high. He knew that once he reached the top he'd have a small wooden platform, about 15 centimeters wide, where he could place his feet, before using a set of ropes to clear a large gap. Athletic hurdles came next, which were larger than average.

After that, there seemed to be a slick metal barricade, about two meters high he would have to scale, only to drop down again on the other side. Crawling under the net that lay behind the barricade seemed a simple task, after which a balancing beam with a width of only a centimeter finished off the course.

Sasuke smirked to himself. '_Child's play, this'll barely take a minute.'_ "Are you ready Sasuke?" Naruto's question was answered with a quick nod from the young Uchiha. "GO!" At his sensei's word, Sasuke pushed of off the ground, almost launching himself across the field. Reaching the net within barely four seconds he used the speed from his run to jump as high as he could and grabbed the net. He risked a quick glance down; '_over halfway, good.' _Then quickly started to pull himself up and clambered up the net one hole at a time.

Hinata watched in shock and horror as the course's first challenger let out a chilling scream when his hand grabbed the upper most part of the net. The young Uchiha seemed to convulse in place for a moment before it looked like he was blasted away from the net, hitting the ground moments later with a sickening sound. "Are you alright!?" She yelled, but her scream was drowned by Sakura's "Sasuke-kun!" After which the pink haired girl started to sprint towards their fallen teammate. Before she could make it even halfway though, she was stopped gently by their sensei who stood at the starting line. "If you try to help him, he fails." He spoke, before turning to the young Uchiha after seeing his words had stopped the girl. "Hey Sasuke, are you alright over there?"

"Of course I'm not fine damn it, what kind of voltage did you put in there anyway!?" Sasuke spit out as he tried to get up. Seeing his sensei's mock shocked expression didn't help sooth his annoyance in the slightest. "You make it seem like I had anything to do with that, you're really scarring me emotionally, Sasuke-chan." Sasuke tuned out his sensei's sickeningly sweet voice. It would only serve to distract him further, thus he continued with the other perils; which his sensei had undoubtedly set up

This time he noticed the cleverly concealed tags woven through the upperparts of the net, carefully he climbed on to the small wooden platform. Looking down he noticed the ground was littered with caltrops. '_It's going to hurt if I make a mistake while swinging from the ropes.' _He took exactly one step back, before making a jump towards the first rope. Latching on to it, he could see that the next rope wasn't in a pristine condition, heck, it was nowhere near safe to hang on to. Using every ounce of weight and strength he had in him, he let go and made it to the third rope instead of the second, if barely. He had a hard time keeping himself latched to the rope, so he took a moment to make sure he got in to the right swinging motion, before jumping towards the last rope. A final swing got him at the wooden hurdles. Jumping over the hurdles, everything seemed fine. Until he was a at the last hurdle; not noticing the small slits in the hurdle, he tried to jump over, only to be surprised by about ten shuriken being launched from underneath him. Agile as Sasuke was, he managed to turn his body to the side in midair; he was only grazed by the shuriken. _'That blonde bastard, does everything need to be trapped?'_ The grazes didn't really hurt, but it was annoying nonetheless.

Moving forward, the rookie of the year arrived at the metal barricade. This time it was rather easy to spot it, perhaps because he was suspicious of every damn obstacle in this course now. _'How unexpected, another damn trap.' _Sasuke sighed; now he had to scale a barricade oiled up until it was as slick as a baby seal. Hard pressed for finding an answer on how to scale this stupid thing, Sasuke noticed a young tree on the other side of the barricade. Rummaging through his pouches, he took some Shinobi wire and a kunai. The last loyal Uchiha tied the wire to the kunai, keeping the wire in one hand and the kunai in the other. He threw the kunai, winding it around a branch of the tree, hoping the wire could hold his weight. Taking off his Shinobi sandals, Sasuke put on foot on the barricade, while holding the wire with two hands, giving it a tug. It seemed to hold for the moment. Slowly he climbed up the metal barricade, foot before foot. Finally at the top, he saw the net that was meant to be crawled under.

Jumping down, Sasuke immediately went flat on his stomach and started crawling to make up for the time lost at the barricade. He was reminded of the need to look for traps by a sharp metal object cutting into his arm. Cursing he continued on. Far more carefully than before, though. After finishing his crawl, he stood up. Eyeing the balancing beam warily; Sasuke wondered what for hidden dangers the last part of the course had in store for him. After he set his first few steps on the beam, he felt a small surge of chakra behind him. Turning his head, he saw symbols lighting up on the beam. _'That's probably very dangerous, I sho-'_ Before he could finish his thoughts, flames shot up from the symbols. Symbols beneath him started also lighting up, which was the moment Sasuke started running for his life.

"That was decent. I liked your finish, Sasuke. I've never seen someone run quite that fast, while looking utterly terrified. Truly, it looked pretty funny." Naruto smirked. Sasuke didn't look amused. "You're next on my list, right after my brother." He panted, totally exhausted.

**A/N: **

**As some of you might have noticed, team 7's personalities are somewhat different. They even may come across as out of character, this is because we have a different history for the Elemental Nations and for the characters inhabiting them. All of the changes to characters and the world are the results of things earlier in the timeline, except Sasuke's foul mouth when he's in pain, we thought that was amusing. This chapter took a bit longer to write than anticipated; as we greatly underestimated building a world which isn't actually a carbon copy from canon. Our notes document is already over 25 pages and counting. Also, we would like to thank the people who have spent some time by either reading this story and/or following it. We greatly appreciate it, and it certainly helped us get this chapter out. Feedback is always greatly appreciated.**

**With best regards,**

**Carpe Tempore**


End file.
